Water Discovery Trail

Interpretive Guide

Map of the Water Discovery Trail Discovery Water the of Map

2 35 Acknowledgements:

This project was made possible by the support of the Willary Table of Contents Foundation (www.willary.org) and Keystone College. 1. All Hands on Deck……………………….…4 Trail Guide by: 2. Classroom by the Stream………………...6 Dr. Jerry Skinner Keystone College 3. …………………………….…8 Trail Projects Coordinators: Tim Eichner, Leigh Jennings, Robert Karuzie 4. Nose to Water……………………………..10

With additional support from: 5. What Makes This a ? ………….13 Kurt Schmidt, Tom Stanbro, Keystone College Physical Plant, 6. Forest Hydrology………………………..…15 Mr. Ernie Keller, Former Director, Lackawanna County Conservation District, Mr. Shane Kleiner, PA DEP Conservation District Field Rep 7. Acid Deposition………………………….. Project Director: 8. Forest Stewardship……………………….. Professor Howard Jennings, Director, Keystone College Environmental Education Institute (KCEEI) 9. , & Invaders………………..…...

10. Flood Plain……………………………….. 2009 Trail Revisions: Samantha Watkins, Keystone College student, Nora Dillon, 11. On the Way to the Bay…………………… Assistant Director, Keystone College Environmental Education Institute Conclusion………………………………….. 2012 Trail Revisions: Nora Dillon, Scott Harris Acknowledgements…………………

34 3 Station 1. All Hands On extensive shallow water habitat is ideal for the Deck Bay's world famous harvest of oysters, soft-shell clams, and blue crabs. In recent decades, elcome to the however, large areas of the bay’s bottom have Water Discovery been without oxygen due to pollution. Interpretive Thankfully, conditions are improving due to Nature Trail at Water Discovery intensive programs throughout the watershed. WKeystone College! Trail logo CONCLUSION… You will begin your Discovery We've tried to expose you to many aspects of experience here on the deck of Lackawanna water, and hope you have a better Hall. Throughout you will be guided by the Water understanding of this most valuable of resources. Discovery Trail logo. This trail is approximately 1/2 For more information about topics in this trail mile long. guide, and other Woodlands Resources visit the: http://www.keystone.edu/woodlands The theme of this trail guide is to dive into water in all its aspects, from the water cycle to the concept of the watershed. Why make such a big deal about water? It’s pretty common stuff, isn’t it? Yes, but with many uncommon properties. We use the words ‘most, highest, and best’ about water more often than for any other liquid. And all of these properties are a result of the polar nature of the molecule, more positive at one end while being more negative at the

4 33 and coastal Oregon by other. temperate rain forest.  Water is a wonderful solvent, able to What leads to these dissolve more substances than differences? Moisture! PA anything else we know. It allows Water’s polar averages about 38 inches materials to be carried throughout nature makes of precipitation per year, ecosystems and organisms’ bodies. it unique. while Nebraska receives Unfortunately, this is also why it is one about 30, and coastal of the most easily polluted substances: so many Oregon gets from 60-180+ contaminants can be dissolved in it. inches. Trees require more  It is the only natural substance which exists at moisture than grasslands, the surface of the earth in all three states: solid, and rain forest requires liquid, and gas. even more.  It is the only substance whose solid form floats The watershed drains 64,000 mi2 of six states. We all live downstream atop its liquid form. from someone. Those  It has very high cohesion, i.e., water molecules who live upstream from us have profound effects like to stick together. This causes water’s very on our water quality, health, and quality of life, as high surface tension allowing some insects to we do for those further downstream. “walk on water.” It is also essential to The ultimate ‘downstream’ for us is the transpiration, a plant’s ability to pull water from Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the US. below ground to the top of a tall tree. Formed 12,000 years ago when the last ice sheet  Water also has important thermal properties. It melted drowning the mouth of the ancestral takes a lot of energy to change the , it is fed by 19 principle rivers. temperature of water or to change it from The Susquehanna River makes the greatest one state to another (for example, from freshwater contribution to this long (180 mi.) but water to steam). This makes water quite a shallow (20 foot average) body of water. The

32 5 stable environment for living . . . it heats and With extensive community and volunteer cools slowly. support, this award-winning project has been a Our search for extraterrestrial life as we know great success and has attracted professional it in the universe always begins with a search for restoration biologists eager to see mitigation water. Now we begin our investigation of the techniques at work. Water Planet. Station 17. On the Way to the Bay Before we get started, take a look at the map of the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed that’s on Consider the interconnectedness of all parts the deck of this building. Do you live in this of the watershed ecosystem you have been watershed? If so, can you find your location? observing. The rocks help determine what the soils will be. The soils and climate determine what Station 2. Classroom by the Stream plants can live here. Plants, to large extent, determine which animals can live here. A shady spot, a gurgling brook . . . What could Have you ever wondered what determines be a better outdoor classroom? This view of the the dominant vegetation type in this area? stream allows us to sit and consider the source Generally, it is precipitation and temperature, and destination of the water flowing by below us, with the former being the more important. and to consider the concept of the watershed. As an example, consider three states: A watershed, or , is the land Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Oregon. At area which contributes water to a stream or lake. approximately the same latitude, they all have You can delineate one by connecting points of the same amount of sunlight available to them. highest elevation around the body of water. Although they have nearly identical average The Tunkhannock Creek watershed drains 413 temperatures, they differ widely in the type of square miles of 32 municipalities in northeastern dominant vegetation. Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania. Of that land, 60% is forested, 33% dominated by forests, Nebraska by grassy prairie,

6 31 help to reduce and catch and runoff that agricultural, 5% urban/commercial, and 4% was now going directly into the stream. wetlands. Additionally, shade would cool and moderate Let's trace the path of a drop of rainwater the water temperature. The vegetation also falling in the upper part of the watershed. After provides wildlife habitat. hitting the ground, it might runoff into a rill, To restore the area and reestablish the feeding into ever larger channels. Or, it may zone would require stabilization of percolate through the soil until it reaches the the streambank. A mixture of techniques was water table and becomes part of the chosen. “Hard armor,” such as riprap (large rocks), was deployed along part of the bank. 'Soft armor' bioengineering techniques were also Tunkhannock Creek Watershed incorporated, including biologs constructed of plant materials to help hold the bank. Fabric mesh was laid on the graded banks to stabilize the bare soil. Water-loving vegetation such as PA willows were planted directly into the bank. Quickly developing root masses will provide integrity to the banks. Red-osier Dogwood and Arrowwood Viburnum are among the water tolerant plants that were integrated into the stabilization plans. Location of the Tunkhannock Creek watershed Downstream several large downed trees were groundwater. It would enter the lake at buried in the streambank with their roots Lackawanna State Park where it might stay for a protruding into the channel. These rootwads while. The average residence time of a deflect and slow the current, and provide fish molecule of water in a lake is about seven cover.

30 7 years! original Nokomis bridge behind the library. More One day it would pass over the spillway and unstable stream banks were poised to collapse continue the journey downstream in the into the stream. A grant from the Northeastern Tunkhannock Creek. It would then take less than Pennsylvania Urban Forestry Program allowed the a day to flow past you at this spot. A few miles College to repair the damage and develop a more and it would join waters from the East model project for restoration techniques. Branch of the Tunkhannock Creek, together The riparian zone is that area between the flowing into the Susquehanna River in stream bank and adjacent forest. This area had Tunkhannock. been historically degraded by removing much of Now a part of the largest river in Pennsylvania the vegetation for farming and recreational (and the 16th largest in the US), the drop will flow purposes. In part, this set the stage for the flood through Wilkes-Barre, Sunbury, and Harrisburg damage. crossing the Mason-Dixon line into Maryland. The Repair meant reestablishing a more natural Susquehanna ends at Havre de Grace, MD riparian buffer zone. This vegetated area would where it enters the Chesapeake Bay, delivering 90% of the freshwater flowing into the upper bay at a normal rate of 18 million gallons per minute! It’s easy to see why programs to clean up the Bay look upstream for solutions. Pennsylvania and New York State contribute significantly to the quality of the water flowing to the Bay. Homeowners fertilizing lawns, dairy farmers spreading manure on fields, and backyard mechanics draining oil from cars onto the ground all impact the quality of groundwater, drinking The benefits of an intact riparian buffer zone water, and the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

8 29 benefit from the added soil and nutrients that It really makes you hope that your upstream often come with flooding. In many areas the neighbors are being as careful and considerate richest agricultural soils are in river bottom areas. as you! Please cross the suspension bridge. At Are crops likely to be ruined? Only if flooding the bottom, turn 180 degrees right to travel to the occurs during the growing season. Statistically, stream's edge. however, most floods occur during the winter (when frozen ground promotes quick runoff) and Station 3. Water Quality spring (the wettest time of the year). Crop damage is less likely and less severe at these How good is times. the water in this Why do we so often see severe damage from stream? What is flooding? People love to live near water! Many in the water early settlements were built near rivers because, depends on what in the absence of adequate roads, most goods h a p p e n s and commerce traveled via rivers. A 1991 study upstream. The found 17,000 US communities occupying types of rocks , including 10 million households and and soil, as well $390 billion in property. Young and old can easily perform as in the simple tests to measure water quality in Northeastern Pennsylvania has faced flood w a t e r s h e d your local stream. situations many times in its past, most notably the greatly effect the 1972 Wyoming Valley disasters associated with water. Hurricane Agnes. Overall, water quality here is generally good. The flood of January 1996 caused extensive It is usually saturated with dissolved oxygen (D.O.) erosional damage in this area. Fast moving flood due to the bubbling of the water through the waters tore away tens of feet of stream bank, riffles. Cooler water can hold more oxygen, so cutting into the athletic fields and tearing out the

28 9 the levels vary seasonally; however, oxygen is drops the heavier particles it has been carrying. rarely a problem in an unpolluted stream. This leaves a higher bank along the stream's (Although water is made from hydrogen and edge, known as a natural levee. So far there is oxygen, H2O, this oxygen is tightly held and little levee development along this young stream. cannot be used for breathing. Only oxygen that As the water spreads farther from the channel is dissolved in the water as O2 can be used for and slows even more, it drops its sediment load, that.) adding silt and sand to the soils present there. Temperature, too, varies seasonally. In winter Excavating a soil pit in this area will reveal layer it is barely above freezing, while in summer it may upon layer of silt, sand and other telltale signs of exceed 70°F. Though rarely too cold for stream past flooding. life, it can easily get too hot. Flooding is a natural and expected aspect of These factors interact with each other. For the life of a stream. To think that we can stop it is example, the amount of oxygen present is naïve. With luck we may be able to exert limited dependent on temperature. In winter, with water control over it and minimize the damage. For this temperatures hovering near freezing, the stream reason, many communities have zoning can hold more than 14 mg/L* of O2. In summer, if ordinances regarding building on flood plains. stream temperatures reach 80ºF, the maximum Consider the land usage here. On one side of amount of oxygen the water can hold is about 8 the stream are Keystone College's athletic fields. mg/L. Cold water fish like trout would not only Minor flooding would have relatively minor find the temperatures excessive, but would find consequences to this facility. Major flooding the oxygen levels to be dangerously low. could deposit layers of mud and perhaps erode pH, a measure of acidity, usually varies from the stream bank, as occurred in the flood of about 6.5 to 8.5 in natural waters. Hand in hand January, 1996. with this is alkalinity, a measure of the ability of On the other side of the stream are former the water to maintain a constant pH. Stream life agricultural fields. Is agriculture an appropriate cannot tolerate extremes or rapid changes in pH. use for a ? Farmers may actually

10 27 Its invasive nature comes with its ability to Depending on the rocks in the watershed, a outcompete nearly everything else in a wetland, stream may have a high alkalinity rating, and be leaving what some have termed a “biological well-buffered from pH changes. Generally, ghetto.” And a single plant can produce streams in limestone areas are well buffered, more than a million tiny, airborne seeds. while those in granite or shale areas are not. We Unfortunately, it lacks the wildlife value of are in the latter category. Alkalinity here is the native species it replaces. usually less than 50 mg/L, a satisfactory level for a freestone stream. Station 10. Floodplain Nutrients, such as phosphorous and nitrogen, play major roles in water quality, acting as Below is the confluence of Ackerly Creek and fertilizers which stimulate plant growth, fueling the the South Branch of Tunkhannock Creek. Today food chain. However, too much fertilizer can they are probably flowing peacefully in their lead to algae and plant-choked streams or lakes. channels. At other times, so much water is When the plants die, their decomposition can moving past that they overflow their banks lead to oxygen deficits and fish deaths. spilling out onto their floodplains, the flat areas alongside the stream. Station 4. Nose to Water Fast moving water has enough energy to carry a large amount of materials, known as the If you’re willing to get your knees damp and stream's load. Raging floodwaters can pick up dirty, you can get ‘nose-to-water’ with a small-to-large sized particles and carry them until wetland. By leaning over the side a little, you'll they no longer have the energy. be immersed in the multi-sensory experience of When the stream water level rises, it will the wetland. overflow its banks, spreading out into the Perhaps your sense of smell will be awakened adjacent fields. The water slows quickly and first. Wet areas have a unique odor. Perhaps it is the aroma of wet mud . . . or the plants floating

26 11 on top. Wetlands are more odiferous on days of when it grows to nine feet tall! low atmospheric pressure. When a high-pressure This is a highly invasive and prolific species. system predominates, there is enough air stacked Many attempts have been made to eradicate it up in the atmosphere to keep marsh gases from this spot as well as along stretches of the pushed down in the mud. However, on low- stream bank. It’s easy to chop back the above pressure days, the gases more ground growth, but the underground stem, or easily rise to the surface making rhizome, grows to five feet in length, making their ways to our noses. The smelly removal quite difficult. A systemic herbicide gasses are mostly methane and applied on emerging shoots in the spring is one sulfur-gases formed by bacteria recommended way to get rid of this plant. How living in the oxygen depleted successful have we been? Giant Duckweed bottom muds. They give swamps Spirodela polyrhiza Yet another , their characteristic 'rotten-egg' Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum smell. salicaria) is colonizing the You may have to part the duckweed streamsides and wetlands on canopy to look down into the water. campus. It, too, is an escaped Duckweeds, among the smallest flowering plants cultivar. It produces beautiful in the world, rarely flower and reproduce mainly purple flowers over an extended by vegetative means. period of time. One author claims to feel compelled to “pull off the The water isn't easy to look through. It is road just to stop and stare at the probably clear, but stained brown by natural flaming beauty of a pond in early acids from the decomposition of plant materials. autumn when it seems one mass of If you're lucky, you'll be able to see leaves purple.” covering the mucky bottom. Could anything possibly be living here? Yes, indeed! Stare at a Purple Loosestrife

12 25 construct the outdoor amphitheater you just patch of bottom for a while. You may see a Red- passed. spotted Newt (an aquatic salamander) or When large trees come down they leave Spotted Salamander larva crawling along the a hole in the canopy through which light now bottom. Both are carnivorous, always in search streams to the forest floor. This increases soil of creatures smaller than themselves to eat. A temperatures and decreases soil moisture in the profusion of microscopic organisms live here, too. area. It also triggers a race among trees to take Water fleas, copepods, and snails make their over this hole in the sky. Who will win? Look home in these waters. around. Are there smaller trees poised to take A parade of frogs comes here to breed. over for their fallen elder? Don’t bother Wood Frogs, quacking like ducks, may begin pulling up a chair... this race may take decades! breeding before the ice has melted in the spring. They are soon joined by thumbnail-sized Spring Station 9. Wetlands & Invaders Peepers, singing in deafening choruses. Pickerel, Green, Bullfrogs and Gray Tree Frogs each take One of the plants their turn breeding here. growing in this area is Northern Water Snakes live both here and in Japanese Knotweed the stream. They're not poisonous, but they're (Bamboo), (Polygonum also not nice! Occasionally a Snapping Turtle cuspidatum). It is a garden moves in to take advantage of the abundant species escaped from tadpoles, so don't get your nose too close to the cultivation and now a water! common inhabitant of roadside ditches and stream banks in this area. Although not actually a bamboo, it Adult Spotted Salamander, Ambystoma maculatum does resemble its namesake Japanese Knotweed

24 13 Winter finds a greatly different scene. The much timber as possible. We can remove slough freezes over solidly. Beneath inches of ice diseased or stunted trees to benefit the healthy life continues, but at a much slower pace. Some ones. animals hibernate, but others continue their way But timber production is not the only of life in the cold, dark waters. This area remains function of a forest. Can we manage better frozen much longer into the spring than others than Nature for biodiversity, a wide variety of nearby. The shade of the overhanging hemlocks species of all types? Can we do better than may keep this area frozen into April. Nature for the other ecosystem functions such as decomposition, nutrient recycling, water cycling, Station 5. What Makes This a Wetland? and oxygen production? That’s doubtful. Professional foresters prepared a A wetland can often be defined by the stewardship plan for the entire backcampus with 'seat of your pants'. If you sit down and the seat management recommendations. They began of your pants gets wet, then it's a wetland! Also by evaluating the current status of the area. known by names such as bog, swamp, fen, Old growth hemlocks (most over 20” in marsh, and vernal pool, wetlands are sometimes diameter) make up 60% of the trees in the small difficult to recognize. patch between the stream and the campus. For regulatory purposes the Environmental Unfortunately, they have shallow root systems Protection Agency (EPA) because of the type of soil defines wetlands as “those they rest upon. This makes areas that are inundated or them particularly susceptible saturated by surface or to being blown over, as was ground water at a frequency evidenced by tornadic winds in 1998. Many trees were and duration sufficient to Flying squirrels, inhabit- support, and that under toppled and salvaged. Much ants of mature timber, normal circumstances do Great Blue Heron of this timber was used to are common here

14 23 Station 8. Forest Stewardship support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.” How would you evaluate the health, utility, Wetlands delineators use three criteria to and worth of this forested area? Would you mark off wetlands areas: hydrology, soils, and recommend any management program? vegetation. Hydrology, the most definitive Should the trees be harvested? Managed for the criterion, is the hardest to use. It involves benefit of wildlife? Just left alone to let Nature determining the waterflow in an area throughout take its course? the year. Rather than drilling expensive test wells, Of course, timber has value. Building look for signs of flooding. Can you find high materials, paper, and countless other items are water marks on trees, flood debris suspended in made from trees. Some people see a woodlot as branches, or trees with multiple or buttressed an investment, even a crop, to be harvested. trunks? Others see it as a natural area that should be left Soil scientists look for the presence of hydric so. Both are espousing a management plan. soils, those with a history of being waterlogged. The former is apparent. The By excavating a pit to reveal a cross-section of latter, non-interference, is also a the soil profile, they look for evidence of gray, conscious management plan. gleyed soils near the surface. The grayness Each has its own goal. indicates a long history of being without oxygen Can humans manage a because of inundation by water. forest better than Nature? That The easiest criterion to document is the depends on what the goal is. If presence of hydrophytes, or water-loving you wish to harvest the timber, vegetation. A field botanist looks for species that humans can do a better job. can live while constantly having their roots in We can ensure that an optimal oxygen-poor soils. They have special Eastern Hemlocks density of trees is present to dominate this small adaptations that allow them to survive conditions allow all of them to produce as woodlot that would drown most other species. Examples

22 15 at this site include ostrich ferns, mobilized more easily by low pH. It is unlikely that sycamore trees, and sedges. this has caused any direct mortality of trees. What value do wetlands More probable is that chronic acidity stresses have? For many years, people plants making them more considered them to be stinky, susceptible to insect pests and snake-infested, mosquito havens weather conditions that healthy with no redeeming value. trees would better be able to Indeed, our government spent survive. huge amounts of money to drain How does acid precipitation them in order to make the areas effect aquatic ecosystems? That more “productive.” Ironically, depends on how well buffered the now we know that they are water is. In this area we have little among the most biologically buffering and our bodies of water productive ecosystems on earth, are susceptible to acidification. We can look to rivaling tropical rain forests in the Cattail, the many streams in Northeastern PA that have Typha latifolia amount of plant and animal been acidified by acid mine drainage to see matter they produce. what acid precipitation can do. Scientists have attempted to assign a Because many biological processes take monetary value to wetlands for services they place at a specific pH, changing the pH can provide to society. One study estimated their have significant effects. Organisms may die role in flood prevention, wildlife habitat, nutrient directly because of the increased acidity. Others recycling, pollution reduction, water quality may succumb to high levels of aluminum or improvement, tourism, aesthetics, and natural mercury. Clams and snails in acidified waters are products to be more than $36,500 per acre per unable to deposit calcium in their shells making year! This value was the highest for any them soft and susceptible to injury and predators. ecosystem in the world, more than seven times

16 21 for nearly a century. Pennsylvania is in the the value of tropical rain forest! position of being both producer and recipient of acid precipitation. Acid precipitation is defined in terms of the pH scale, a measure of acidity, ranging from Station 6. Forest Hydrology 0 to 14. Values less than 7, defined as neutrality, are acidic; those greater than 7 are basic. The What happens to rain falling on a forest? Of scale is logarithmic, so the difference between course, the leaves and needles of the plants any two integers is a factor of 10. For example, intercept the falling drops, allowing them to hit the difference between a pH of 5 and 7 is not the ground more gently. On the way, the two, or even twenty, but 10 x 10 = 100! moisture may deliver nutrients and pollutants Unpolluted rainfall has a pH of 5.6. Hence, washed from the atmosphere. The water may it is slightly acidic due to natural acids formed also leach nutrients from the plants and soil and when it combines with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By definition, acid precipitation has a pH less than 5.6. Our local rain averages about pH = 4.3, but some episodes more acidic than this have been recorded. How does acid precipitation effect forest ecosystems? Much has been written on this topic. Here are some general conclusions. In forested areas, acid rain may leach nutrients from the leaves of plants. It can also wash more nutrients from the soil. Changing the pH of the soil can alter the chemistry there. Some common soil substances, e.g., toxic aluminum, can be The hydrological cycle

20 17 deliver them to the ground water and streams. were taking over. The study continues today as An excellent way to study the role of a longterm recovery is monitored. forest in a watershed would be to simply remove This study offers us more than curious facts. the forest and measure the effects. Such a study It helps to explain conditions in a watershed as has been carried out in the Hubbard Brook Forest land use changes from native forests to urban in New Hampshire. and suburban uses. Forests can act as For five years an intensive study of processes huge sponges to absorb precipitation and later in an intact forest was conducted. Researchers release it at a slower rate. This makes the found that although precipitation varied over the moisture more available to plants and decreases years, the amount of water evaporated from the flooding. If the same land area is used for trees stayed constant. They also found that soil housing, buildings, roads, and parking lots, very erosion from the intact forest was negligible. little water can percolate into the soil, and it runs They then clearcut the entire watershed, off into streams. A much greater volume of leaving adjacent ones intact for comparison water moves in a shorter time. This is the recipe purposes. Changes were immediate and for increased flood significant. Water runoff increased 30%. This led potential. to greatly increased loss of nutrients in the runoff. Nitrate, an important plant fertilizer, was lost 40x Station 7. Acid faster than in the intact forest. This led to an Deposition acidification of the soil, which further depleted Acid precipitation other plant nutrients. Soil erosion increased has been recognized greatly after two years as root systems which had as an environmental been holding the soil decayed. problem for several Regeneration of the forest was rapid and decades. The temperatures and nutrient levels began to pollutants causing acid rain have been with us approach normal, although different species

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